Abstract

Culture fisheries enhancements are widely practised in small waterbodies throughout the Mekong region. Although frequently initiated by local communities, enhancements have received considerable financial and logistic support from governments and some NGOs. In this paper, we firstly review the characteristics of enhanced small waterbody fisheries in Lao PDR and NE Thailand, and evaluate their performance in terms of productivity and socio-economic as well as environmental impacts. Secondly, we assess the need and potential for improving the performance of enhancements, and explore how governmental organisations and NGOs can aid the sustainable development of enhancements through a process of participatory, adaptive learning.